Olive oil

Stuffed Bell Peppers|This Is Why I’m Full

So Stuffed Bell Peppers are something that my parents made all the time when I was a kid, it was pretty much the only way they could get all of my siblings and I to eat rice! It’s really easy to make and the flavor is fantastic! Dan and I make it at least twice a month! I love it. I wouldn’t eat the peppers when I was a kid, but they are my favorite part now. Dan loves that the top gets all crispy when you bake it, he usually eats the top off of mine too! Anyway, Dan is making a meatloaf right now and I want to watch! Let us know what you think of our Stuffed Bell Peppers and comment below with any questions/suggestions! Be sure and sign up for our Newsletter where we will be posting and sending out recipes we are going to make and giving you the opportunity to give us suggestions for what we should make next! Enjoy!

Bacon Chicken Ranch Pockets|This Is Why I’m Full

I love these Bacon Chicken Ranch Pockets, they are delicious! The bacon and chicken go well together, and the cream cheese makes everything all creamy and fantastic. Dan and I love to use rotisserie chicken, so this was a recipe that we instantly fell in love with. We made homemade potato chips as a side with this and that was a good choice! I also think that these would go well with some fresh avocado. Let us know what you think of our Bacon Chicken Ranch Pockets and comment below with any questions/suggestions! Be sure and sign up for our Newsletter where we will be posting and sending out recipes we are going to make and giving you the opportunity to give us suggestions for what we should make next! Enjoy!

Avocado Bacon Grilled Cheese|This Is Why I’m Full

So if you’ve looked through the majority of the recipes we have you will find that we add bacon to almost everything, because bacon is a piece of heaven on Earth. Delicious. But anyway, knowing that Dan and I absolutely LOVE bacon why would a sandwich that has our favorite food (bacon) and my second favorite food (avocado) why would we not consider this Avocado Bacon Grilled Cheese to be the best dinner to ever exist. There aren’t many words to express how amazing this sandwich is. Dan used sourdough bread and I used King’s Hawaiian bread because it’s fantastic… But yeah. Eat this tonight and you will never want to eat anything else ever again! Let us know what you think of our Avocado Bacon Grilled Cheese and comment below with any questions/suggestions! Be sure and sign up for our Newsletter where we will be posting and sending out recipes we are going to make and giving you the opportunity to give us suggestions for what we should make next! Enjoy!

Lay half the slices, oiled side down, on a clean work surface and top with the cheddar cheese, dividing evenly. Place avocado slices on top of the cheddar and the bacon slices next then top with the Monterey jack, dividing evenly.

Top each with one of the remaining bread slices, oiled side up.

Heat a large fry pan or griddle over medium heat until hot. Place 2 of the sandwiches in the pan, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the undersides are golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip the sandwiches and brown the other side, 3 to 4 minutes more. Repeat with the remaining sandwiches.

Transfer the sandwiches to a cutting board and cut in half. Serve immediately. Serves 4.

Chicken and Gnocchi Soup|This Is Why I’m Full

This is a copycat recipe of your favorite Olive Garden soup, so now you can create it at home! You’ll be able to find potato gnocchi in the refrigerated Italian section of your grocery store. I don’t know how many of you have been to Olive Garden but this is my favorite soup when I go. Salad, bread sticks, soup? Yeah, I probably go there too often to be running a food blog but really the food is always there, plentiful and good. Maybe I’ll just go there rather than making another post… You can also make this in your crock pot! Yummy!

Let us know what you think and comment below with any questions/suggestions! Be sure and sign up for our Newsletter where we will be posting and sending out recipes we are going to make and giving you the opportunity to give us suggestions for what we should make next! Enjoy!

In a large soup pot or Dutch oven heat the butter and oil together over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, celery and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and cook until tender over medium-low heat about 10 minutes, stirring often.

Sprinkle the flour into the pot and stir into the vegetables, cook 3 minutes, stirring often. Stir in the chicken broth 1 cup at a time, followed by the half & half.

Add the cooked chicken. Bring up to a simmer and maintain for 20 minutes stirring often. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the gnocchi separately according to package directions. Add them to the soup along with the spinach. Simmer until spinach is wilted. Stir in basil. Serve with grated cheese.

Beef Stew with Carrots & Potatoes|This Is Why I’m Full

It’s winter time. So its time to get out the stew recipes, this is a large batch of Beef Stew with Carrots & Potatoes I would suggest saving and freezing some so you can have it as a snack for later. These leftovers I don’t eat cold. Eating a cold stew just isn’t appealing to me in any way.

Careful with the Garlic on this Beef Stew with Carrots & Potatoes, if you’re a big fan of garlic then you’ll be fine but putting too many cloves will actually overpower the recipe. Though if you do that, you wont have to worry about any vampires as your entire house will smell like garlic. You’ll have a good 50 foot radius of vampire free zone. Though this doesn’t account for the twilight movies. My fiance was watching Twilight while I was making this, and sadly enough the movie didn’t end, and they wern’t affected by my garlic-y Beef Stew with Carrots & Potatoes in any way.

At least I had a delicious Beef Stew with Carrots & Potatoes rather than watching Twilight… Again…

Let us know what you think of this Beef Stew with Carrots & Potatoes and comment below with any questions/suggestions! Be sure and sign up for our Newsletter where we will be posting and sending out recipes we are going to make and giving you the opportunity to give us suggestions for what we should make next! Enjoy!

Pat beef dry and season salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat until hot and shimmering. Brown meat in 3 batches, turning with tongs, about 5-8 minutes per batch, adding one tablespoon more oil for each batch. (To sear meat properly, do not crowd the pan and let meat develop brown crust before turning with tongs.) Transfer meat to a large plate and set aside.

Add onions, garlic and balsamic vinegar; cook, stirring with a wooden spoon to scrape brown bits from bottom of pan, about 5 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook a few minutes more. Add beef with juices back to pan and sprinkle with flour; stir with wooden spoon until flour is dissolved, 1-2 minutes. Add wine, beef broth, water, bay leaf, thyme, and sugar; stir with wooden spoon to loosen any brown bits from bottom of pan and bring to a boil. Cover pot with lid, transfer to preheated oven and braise for 2 hours.

Remove pot from oven and add carrots and potatoes. Cover and place back in oven for 50-60 minutes more, or until vegetables are cooked and meat is very tender. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary (freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of sugar go a long way). Let cool, then store in refrigerator overnight or until ready to serve. This stew improves in flavor if made at least 1 day ahead. Reheat, covered, over medium heat or in a 350°F oven. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.

Chicken Piccata with Lemon|This Is Why I’m Full

Don’t forget the Parchment Paper on this one. It makes clean up a great help and nothing seems to stick, I use the cheap stuff from Kirkland if you’ve never used it before its really handy to have around the kitchen. The lemons in this recipe really bring out the subtle flavors of the chicken and wine. Feel free to experiment with other ingredients if you want to add more flavor. Maybe wrap it in bacon and you’ll have Bacon wrapped Chicken Piccata. I want to try this, and I think I’ll leave the lemons out of the recipe when I do it. Lemons and bacon don’t sound right in my mind. Bacon.

Or maybe I’ll sprinkle cheese on the chicken and then wrap it in bacon. Then I’ll have a gooey cheesy bacon-y chicken. mmmm

I made this dinner with mashed potatoes and green beans as sides. My fiancee loved it!

Let us know what you think of our Chicken Piccata with Lemon and comment below with any questions/suggestions! Be sure and sign up for our Newsletter where we will be posting and sending out recipes we are going to make and giving you the opportunity to give us suggestions for what we should make next! Enjoy!

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place each chicken breast between 2 sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap and pound it out to ¼-inch thick. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.

Mix the flour, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon of pepper in a shallow plate. In a second plate, beat the egg and ½ tablespoon of water together. Place the breadcrumbs on a third plate. Dip each chicken breast first in the flour, shake off the excess, and then dip in the egg and breadcrumb mixtures.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan over medium to medium-low heat. Add the chicken breasts and cook for 2 minutes on each side, until browned. Place them on the sheet pan and allow them to bake for 5 to 10 minutes while you make the sauce.

For the sauce, wipe out the saute pan with a dry paper towel. On medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and then add the lemon juice, wine, the reserved lemon halves, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Boil over high heat until reduced in half, about 2 minutes. Off the heat, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and swirl to combine. Discard the lemon halves and serve one chicken breast on each plate. Spoon on the sauce and serve with a slice of lemon and a sprinkling of fresh parsley.

The Perfect Chicken|This Is Why I’m Full

Here is the recipe that I use to make the best chicken you’ll ever consume. This is the recipe you’ll need to make before you make Lemon Angel Hair with Chicken and Spinach. I use a Dutch oven to make my chicken I think it makes the recipe come to life a bit better than it would in a regular pan. Plus I just like cooking with it to begin with, so if you don’t have one here is a link to the Dutch Oven that I use. I love them because of the even heat distribution, they heat slowly and evenly which is perfect to keep all the yummy juices in your chicken that way you wont lose any flavor. Your tummy will love you if you get this.

Just to make a note, you really do want your meat to cool down before you start to cut into it. If you’ve ever tried to cut hot meat and noticed all the juices running over your cutting board? We’ll you’re just losing flavor and making the meat dry and hard to eat. SO yeah, don’t do that.

This is a great meal to make on its own, or add some pasta and spinach, and bacon, with some cheese and you’ll be in food coma heaven.

Let us know what you think of The Perfect Chicken and comment below with any questions/suggestions! Be sure and sign up for our Newsletter where we will be posting and sending out recipes we are going to make and giving you the opportunity to give us suggestions for what we should make next! Enjoy!